Ragging in two colleges: 4 students arrested, 22 suspended in West Bengal

Hooghly: Four students were arrested and 22 others were suspended on Saturday following complaints of ragging against them in two colleges of Hooghly district.

While four students of century old Government College of Engineering & Textile Technology, Serampore, were arrested, 22 students of Netaji Mahavidyalaya, Arambagh, were suspended.

A 2nd year Information Technology department student, Arijit Sikdar, lodged a complaint with the UGC`s anti-ragging cell that four senior students forced him to buy liquor threatening that otherwise he would be pushed from the 1st floor balcony of their hostel, college sources said.

Principal Sumanta Bhattacharya said the UGC cell informed the college about the complaint and the four students were show-caused.

After the complaints were proved in a probe of the college anti-ragging committee, an FIR was lodged against them according to law and the four were arrested, he said.

Superintendent of Police Sunil Chowdhury said Gobinda Seal, Anurag Mohanty, Apurba Talukdar and Pintu Rajak were arrested after an FIR was lodged by the college authorities.

In the second incident, authorities of the Netaji Mahavidyalaya of Arambagh suspended 22 students of 2nd and 3rd year, Principal Asim Dey said.

Sanjib Adhikary, a 1st year student of geography department, complained that he was severely tortured by senior students in the hostel in the night of September 9.

According to the complaint, he was made to sit on a chair with two light bulbs held before his eyes. When he wanted to drink water, he was given urine. After his four-hour ordeal ended at 2 am, he was instructed to get up early and wake up all students of the hostel.

However, he left the hostel and went home at Kotulpur in Bankura district from where he returned with his father and lodged the complaint to the principal.

Adhikary managed to record a portion of the conversations of that fateful night and the principal said he listened that recording.

He said all the 22 accused students were suspended and a meeting of the governing body was convened on Tuesday.